I feel the comment was legitimate and there was nothing wrong with Charles saying it. The world allowed Hitler to have the Sudetenland thinking that would appease him and keep him at bay. As we now know, that did not work.

Every time Hitler's name is mentioned people freak out, sometimes rightfully so. But in this case it was appropriately used.

The CBC's behaved itself fairly well the lest few days, but of course they couldn't resist latching onto this and making much more of it than necessary. Somehow the tweet of one insignificant Labour MP suddenly represents to voice of the British political establishment on this matter.

...Every time Hitler's name is mentioned people freak out, sometimes rightfully so. But in this case it was appropriately used.

It was appropriately used - Charles was comparing Putin's actions in the Crimea to Hitler's in the Sudetenland.

I think there are a few problems with the comment, or at least with the reaction.

First there's the fact that it was made to a woman who is related to holocaust victims. When you have a headline of "Prince Charles compares Putin to Hitler to the Family of Holocaust Victims" the go to thought isn't that he's making a comment about foreign invasions.

Secondly, comparing people to Hitler - however valid such a comparison might be - is such a loaded statement that there is no way things can go over well. There is a concept called Godwin's Law which states that the longer an online discussion goes on the more inevitable it is that someone or something will be compared to Hitler or Nazism. A corollary is that as soon as Hitler is mentioned the debate is over, and whoever mentioned Hitler has lost. Comparing people to Hitler is often counterproductive in that sense.

Thirdly, Charles is a man who is in line to be an apolitical head of state. For him to make ANY public comment about a foreign nation, its head of state, its policies, etc, when he's not speaking on behalf of the government(s) that he represents is hugely inappropriate. This isn't simply a blunder for the British, it's also a blunder for Canada. A member of the Canadian Royal family, the future head of state of Canada, while on an official engagement in Canada representing the current head of state went and made a comment comparing the head of state of another country (one that is actually fairly close to Canada, militarily better off than Canada, and has had a tense relationship with Canada in regards to Arctic sovereignty) to a man who is often considered to be the worst human being ever.

While I don't disagree with the comment and think it is an apt comparison, I do disagree with Charles' decision to make such a comment in public as saying such things is kind of contrary to his role.

...comments like that just make the job of the British government in its already fraught dealings with Russia even harder...

Bearing in mind Mr Putin's personal inadequacies have made him believe himself to be the best thing since the invention of vodka, I doubt very much he will care what a lowly person such as the heir to the British throne has to say. Accordingly, any current difficulties in the British government's dealings with Russia will remain as they are now.

Future "apolitical" head of state of one of the free world's political institutions isn't allowed to freely comment about what is clearly tyrannical behaviour on the part of Putin. That doesn't exactly look all that great, either.

If you want something really controversial, how about the rambling denunciation of NATO and assertion that Canada, and Harper in particular, are non-entities in when it comes to international politics. This at a ceremony honouring those who fought in "defense" of the Stalinist regime. A ceremony that took place on Canadian soil.

Also, HRH made a joke today about maybe not living long enough to return to Canada. I don't follow him all that closely so I'm not sure what kind of remarks he's made about his own mortality. I know many people do this - I do it from time to time - but still it was a bit saddening to hear; maybe the supposed "controversy" is gnawing away at him.

Also it would be the height of hypocrisy if he were to publicly claim to be offended - the kind of drivel that apparently airs on Russian TV about nuking America into a "radioactive wasteland" etc. I don't think people in the west realize how much Soviet propaganda still influences the Russian people's opinions of the west - even the younger generations. They simply don't like us. Which is why they persist in waging a cyber war against us.

I feel the comment was legitimate and there was nothing wrong with Charles saying it. The world allowed Hitler to have the Sudetenland thinking that would appease him and keep him at bay. As we now know, that did not work.

Every time Hitler's name is mentioned people freak out, sometimes rightfully so. But in this case it was appropriately used.

You have a full right to agree with Prince Charles. The world allowed the enlightened democratic regimes to carry questionable crusades in the recent past. It would be fair to say that Mr Putin is used to be slated by holier-than-thou western media lackeys.
Dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.

__________________"I never did mind about the little things"
Amanda, "Point of No Return"

Charles was being shown around the Museum of Immigration in Halifax, Nova Scotia, along with Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall.

The royal couple paid tribute to World War Two veterans and their families, and during the course of the visit they spoke to museum volunteer Marianne Ferguson.

Ms Ferguson told the Prince she fled to Canada with her family in 1939, not long before Hitler annexed the Baltic coastal Free City of Gdansk.After meeting Charles, the 78-year-old told the Daily Mail: "The Prince said 'And now Putin is doing just about the same as Hitler'.

I bet those who are responsible for minding Charles and Putin at the D-day ceremony are sweating. They'll be working overtime to make sure those two are kept apart.

they have never been scheduled to meet each other. Reported today (Putin with Heads of State I assume). Tho what the Normandy beaches have to do with Russia ....... They had their own tough battles to fight,

__________________

This precious stone set in the silver sea,......This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

they have never been scheduled to meet each other. Reported today (Putin with Heads of State I assume). Tho what the Normandy beaches have to do with Russia ....... They had their own tough battles to fight,

Who brought up Hitler isn't the big thing here. Given the circumstances of the event, Hitler being brought up was probably very natural.
Who brought up Putin is a different matter. That's where it gets tricky and it does seem like it was Charles who did that, not the woman.

...If you want something really controversial, how about the rambling denunciation of NATO and assertion that Canada, and Harper in particular, are non-entities in when it comes to international politics...

Also, HRH made a joke today about maybe not living long enough to return to Canada...

Also it would be the height of hypocrisy if he were to publicly claim to be offended - the kind of drivel that apparently airs on Russian TV about nuking America into a "radioactive wasteland" etc. I don't think people in the west realize how much Soviet propaganda still influences the Russian people's opinions of the west - even the younger generations. They simply don't like us. Which is why they persist in waging a cyber war against us.

Two wrongs don't necessarily make a right though.

No one is saying Putin is a good person or that the situation in Russia is ideal. What's going on there is far from ideal and is, for the west, a very tense and fraught political situation. People handling such situations badly is really what caused World War One, and we don't need to repeat that.

Putin is not, by Western standards, a good leader. Russia is not, by those same standards, a good country. What they're doing in the Crimea is also not good. And for regular joes like us, it is completely acceptable and valid to make comparisons between the current state of Russia and previous totalitarian, agressive states.

It is appropriate for politically involved people and world leaders to make similar comments in private as well. It is not appropriate for them to make such comments in public - regardless of who brought up Hitler or Putin or what not. To do so on that level is just to risk bating an already unpredictable state into a fight - a fight that it's really debatable if we should enter into. Charles making comments that have been overheard, and thus can be misquoted, misrepresented, misunderstood, and really aren't polite in the best of light, just adds to an already bad situation.

Can I point you in the direction of my post #86 where a constititional expert gives the following opinion.

"All of the Queen's public speeches and actions are taken on advice from ministers, says constitutional expert Vernon Bogdanor. But other royals, including the heir to the throne, are not bound by any rules. In practice, Prince Charles shows his speeches to ministers before delivery, Bogdanor says. And the convention is that senior royals should not embarrass the Queen in either public or private statements. The key unwritten rule is to avoid party politics. Bogdanor argues that the prince's Putin remark did not overstep the mark. "It reflects a consensus among all the main parties. The comment is controversial rather than anodyne. But it is not party political."

Also it would be the height of hypocrisy if he were to publicly claim to be offended - the kind of drivel that apparently airs on Russian TV about nuking America into a "radioactive wasteland" etc. I don't think people in the west realize how much Soviet propaganda still influences the Russian people's opinions of the west - even the younger generations. They simply don't like us. Which is why they persist in waging a cyber war against us.

Subjects and citizens in the enlightened western regimes are still affected by and parrot the Cold War propaganda. Russians, Kazakhs, and other nationalities of the former USSR are more worldly than Europeans. They read information from local news sites and international ones.
The pearl-clutching is pathetic.

__________________"I never did mind about the little things"
Amanda, "Point of No Return"

Subjects and citizens in the enlightened western regimes are still affected by and parrot the Cold War propaganda. Russians, Kazakhs, and other nationalities of the former USSR are more worldly than Europeans. They read information from local news sites and international ones.
The pearl-clutching is pathetic.